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N.C. microgrids build resilience after Helene

By Mason Adams

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This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Southeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

RESILIENCE

  • A North Carolina grant program is boosting a network of government and nonprofit groups that came together after Hurricane Helene to help fire departments and other community centers install resilience-boosting solar panels and batteries. (Canary Media)

WIND

  • A federal judge allows Dominion Energy to continue building its 70% complete offshore wind farm near Virginia despite the Trump administration’s halt over unspecified national security concerns. (Virginian-Pilot, Virginia Mercury)

  • Despite three court losses allowing offshore wind farms to continue construction, the Trump administration’s aggressive actions against the wind industry will likely deter other operators from investing in similar projects. (Bloomberg)

CLIMATE

  • Virginia’s newly inaugurated Democratic governor Abigail Spanberger moves to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. (E&E News)

FOSSIL FUELS

  • The Texas oil industry braces amid Trump’s promise to bring prices down to $50 per barrel and flood the country with Venezuelan oil, which experts say would make it even harder for the industry to break even on costs. (Texas Tribune)

  • Duke Energy considers building a 1,360 MW gas-fired power plant in North Carolina and plans a second, but has not yet announced a site for either facility. (Inside Climate News)

  • Frontieras North America announces plans to build a West Virginia factory to convert coal into fuels, fertilizers, and industrial carbon products. (WV Metro News)

  • A U.S. EPA investigation of the Smitty’s Supply Inc. petroleum packaging plant in Louisiana that spilled millions of gallons of hazardous materials last summer found an estimated 250 damaged containers, 200 chemical spills, and more than 300 containers of unlabeled or unidentified substances. (Louisiana Illuminator)

  • A west Texas community has been struggling to clean up its water reserve after a small oil and gas well operator that seemingly contaminated the water filed for bankruptcy. (Inside Climate News)

NUCLEAR

  • Laser Isotope Separation Technologies plans to build a $1.3 billion uranium enrichment complex in East Tennessee. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

GRID

  • Texas grid officials say ​“there will be sufficient generation to meet demand” during a large winter storm that’s forecast this week. (KERA)

DATA CENTERS

  • President Trump and a bipartisan group of state governors call on PJM Interconnection to hold an emergency auction so data center owners could bid on 15-year power purchase agreements, potentially supporting $15 billion in new power plants. (Associated Press, Utility Dive)

  • Texas’ grid operator develops a new process to simultaneously evaluate multiple large-load interconnection requests from cryptocurrency miners and data center developers, with plans to roll it out by the end of the month. (Inside Climate News)

  • Virginia lawmakers file multiple bills to address data center siting, oversight, and the use of generators. (Virginia Mercury)

  • An analysis finds 25 data centers were canceled last year due to local opposition, roughly four times as many as in 2024. (Heatmap)

HYDROGEN

  • Republican U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia says it’s been difficult to make progress on a proposed hydrogen hub but is confident the project will happen eventually. (WV Metro News)

POLITICS

  • Lesser-known oil companies lead the list of donors to candidates for the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas fields, pipelines, utilities, and mining operations. (Houston Chronicle)

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